The Atlantic Monthly wades into journalism’s chief conundrum again, showing how “complicated” it all is.
Not their job to sort truth from falsehood. Too much else to do.
There’s a certain legitimacy to this, but like a lot of things it’s a matter of degree and balance. Sometimes there is room for disagreement about what may or may not be true. Other times there isn’t. When there isn’t, and truth and falsehood are presented as simply two competing and equivalent alternatives, the neutrality itself becomes a lie. You cannot remain neutral between truth and falsehood.
Easier said than done? Sure, sometimes. But you don’t get to abdicate on fundamental questions pertaining to your own legitimacy.
